By Simon Shepherd
New Zealand has added another world title to its sporting cabinet, but there is no glittering trophy or large winner's cheque to mark the victory.
The Kiwis were competing in the "Rickshaw Run". It is a competition in which teams race for 12 days in a motorised rickshaw through Nepalese jungles and Indian mountains.
“It was just mental - driving a rickshaw was just crazy,” says Rickshaw Run winner, Glen Crofskey. “You get people coming right through the rickshaw. Every time you stopped, you were mobbed.”
Each year teams from all over the world hire a three wheeler for the charity race.
The Kiwis were raising funds for Maiti Nepal which rescues young girls from the sex trade.
Sixty-four rickshaws started at Pokhara, in central Nepal, and then after 3200km of pot holes and treacherous terrain, they finished in India at Cochin.
Along the way they navigated Himalayan passes and steamy Indian jungles. They also coped with sickness and avalanches.
“I was standing behind some locals and we hear some more rocks coming down and they started screaming and running,” explains Darryl Crofskey. “I just had to run as well.”
In fact, just driving a rickshaw had its challenges.
“Driving at night on those roads, with everything coming at you, we didn’t know where we were going - no map, just going for it,” says Wal Gray.
After 11 days they reached Cochin in India - just happy to have made it.
“It was just a huge relief to finish for one and then writing your name on leader board,” says Darryl Crofskey. “And we noticed no one else there and we thought ‘shit, we've actually won’.”
What could possibly be next? Well, there is talk of a greater trek from London to Mongolia, but first of all they want a shave, a shower and a cold beer.
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